Dionysiou 1754, example of printmaking on Athos. Markos Kampanis made a study on this subject.

Markos Kampanis is an artist, born in Athens in 1955. He has studied painting in London. He works as a painter, print maker, book illustrator and church-mural artist.

Much of his artistic work is related to Mt Athos and he is also the curator of The Mount Athos Art Archives, which deals with contemporary artistic production related to the Holy Mountain.

Artistic tradition on Mt Athos is usually connected to icons and religious murals. There is however another artistic practice, usually underrated and in general unknown to the majority, that is the art of printmaking mainly woodcuts and copper engravings. It is an art that flourished from the 17^th c. until the end of the 19^th, quite important for Athonite history, but also for contemporary Greek art history. Let us only mention that the first teacher of engraving in the school of Fine Arts (1843-1865), was an Athonite engraver, the monk Agathaggelos Triantafyllou. This tradition came gradually to an end with the introduction of lithography. Later on modern offset printing gave the final blow to the engraving tradition on Mt Athos.

A collection of Mount Athos prints.

The workshop is in the cell of St George Kalathas on the square of Karyes exactly where the buses stop. It belongs to Simonos Petra. (Thanks M. Kampanis)

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